Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC Raises Position in Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST)

Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale Co. (NASDAQ:COST) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,428 shares of the retailer’s stock after buying an additional 105 shares during the period. Coastal Bridge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Costco Wholesale were worth $1,308,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,455,570 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $1,333,695,000 after purchasing an additional 162,892 shares during the last quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC boosted its stake in Costco Wholesale by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 288 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $264,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC increased its stake in shares of Costco Wholesale by 5.3% in the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 9,073 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $8,313,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Covenant Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Costco Wholesale by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Covenant Partners LLC now owns 561 shares of the retailer’s stock valued at $514,000 after acquiring an additional 16 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in Costco Wholesale by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 124,596 shares of the retailer’s stock worth $114,163,000 after purchasing an additional 1,337 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.48% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Claudine Adamo sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $922.56, for a total value of $830,304.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,987 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,445,926.72. The trade was a 11.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Roland Michael Vachris sold 3,600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $931.00, for a total value of $3,351,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 41,077 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,242,687. The trade was a 8.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,600 shares of company stock valued at $9,140,195. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,065.00 to $1,070.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Telsey Advisory Group reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $1,100.00 target price on shares of Costco Wholesale in a report on Monday. Barclays increased their target price on Costco Wholesale from $940.00 to $980.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Costco Wholesale from $1,075.00 to $1,035.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Costco Wholesale from $1,075.00 to $1,125.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $1,024.03.

Costco Wholesale Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:COST opened at $1,006.50 on Thursday. Costco Wholesale Co. has a 1 year low of $762.71 and a 1 year high of $1,078.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $960.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $961.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $446.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.10, a PEG ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 1.00.

Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 6th. The retailer reported $4.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.09 by ($0.07). Costco Wholesale had a net margin of 2.93% and a return on equity of 32.31%. The company had revenue of $63.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $63.02 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Costco Wholesale Co. will post 18.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Costco Wholesale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 16th. Investors of record on Friday, May 2nd will be paid a $1.30 dividend. This is an increase from Costco Wholesale’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. This represents a $5.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 2nd. Costco Wholesale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.36%.

Costco Wholesale Profile

Costco Wholesale Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Australia, Taiwan, China, Spain, France, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden. The company offers branded and private-label products in a range of merchandise categories.